Says Wills, who counts among his exotic car collection the only McLaren racing car ever sold privately:

“Safety was the most important thing, to be able to enjoy driving in the way manufacturers designed the cars to be driven withouton-coming cars or cyclists.”

Well, that and the no-license thing.

Bird Buggy

Last week, we had a short piece about dogs being trained to drive cars. This week, it’s birds.

So here’s the dilemma faced by University of Florida computer engineering student Andrew Gray. Like many pet owners, it seems his African Grey parrot, Pepper, made a horrendous amount of noise whenever he wasn’t around.

Andrew’s unorthodox solution: the Bird Buggy, a computer-controlled mini-vehicle that wheels Pepper around. It comes complete with infrared sensors to detect obstructions, a perch for Pepper to sit on and a flat surface large enough to hold a newspaper (for waste management purposes, of course).

High tech seatbelt releases underwater

Trust the Dutch to know how to keep our heads above water. Dutch company Fijen has designed the Escape Belt, a seatbelt that releases in the event that you, say, drive your car over a bridge and into a river. The mechanism contains a salt pill that dissolves when wet and unleashes a metal clip that in turn hits the release button on your seat belt.

It all sounds a bit Rube-Goldberg-ish, but impressive nonetheless.

Man run over by truck, then gets ticket

Don’t you hate it when you get run over by a truck and when police arrive, they write you up? That’s exactly what happened to a Massachusetts man, who was run over by his own truck and subsequently ticketed by police. The man, who had lost brake control while driving and fell out while attempting to stop the truck with his feet, was cited for operating a defective vehicle.